‘Making Professional Friends’: Mentees’ and Facilitators’ Experiences of a School-Based Peer Mentoring Intervention to Support Primary to Secondary School Transition

Secondary school transition is a significant marker in children’s education, which can have widespread negative impacts for some young people (Riglin, Frederikson, Shelton, & Rice, 2013). Preventative interventions to support social and emotional needs during the transition are gaining popularity (Department for Education, 2015); yet research into understanding approaches that work is limited. Young people prefer support from people who can relate to them; therefore peer approaches, predominantly peer mentoring interventions are increasingly being used in schools (Podmore, Fonagy, & Munk, 2018). Little is known about the mechanisms of change in peer mentoring, particularly when used to support secondary transition. Therefore, the current study was developed to both explore the experiences of young people participating in a transition peer mentoring project; and to understand from the perspectives of the mentees and programme facilitators what aspects of the intervention they thought facilitated change. The study took a critical realist epistemological position and utilised a qualitative design to enable the voices of the mentees to be fully heard. Three focus groups were held with thirteen mentees in year seven and three facilitators participated in individual interviews. The transcripts were subjected to two separate thematic analyses. Twelve of the mentees noticed positive outcomes following the intervention; including increased confidence, preparation for secondary school and relational changes. The participants emphasised the importance of building trusting, supportive relationships in facilitating change, and reflected that the peer support model worked well, as mentors could relate to the mentees’ experiences. This research supports the need to promote positive mental health and prevention in schools, and demonstrates the benefits of a continued relationship across the school transition. The limitations of the study are explored, along with recommendations about future research, including longitudinal explorations of peer mentoring and the importance of collaboration between education and mental health settings

Promoting post-stroke recovery through focal or whole body vibration: criticisms and prospects from a narrative review

Objective: Several focal muscle vibration (fMV) and whole body vibration (WBV) protocols have been designed to promote brain reorganization processes in patients with stroke. However, whether fMV and WBV should be considered helpful tools to promote post-stroke recovery remains still largely unclear. Methods: We here achieve a comprehensive review of the application of fMV and WBV to promote brain reorganization processes in patients with stroke. By first discussing the putative physiological basis of fMV and WBV and then examining previous observations achieved in recent randomized controlled trials (RCT) in patients with stroke, we critically discuss possible strength and limitations of the currently available data. Results: We provide the first systematic assessment of fMV studies demonstrating some improvement in upper and lower limb functions, in patients with chronic stroke. We also confirm and expand previous considerations about the rather limited rationale for the application of current WBV protocols in patients with chronic stroke. Conclusion: Based on available information, we propose new recommendations for optimal stimulation parameters and strategies for recruitment of specific stroke populations that would more likely benefit from future fMV or WBV application, in terms of speed and amount of post-stroke functional recovery

Observables in the Decays of B to Two Vector Mesons

In general there are nine observables in the decay of a B meson to two vector mesons defined in terms of polarization correlations of these mesons. Only six of these can be detected via the subsequent decay angular distributions because of parity conservation in those decays. The remaining three require the measurement of the spin polarization of one of the decay products.Comment: 12 pages, no figur

Прогнозирование остаточного ресурса колёсных пар вагонов метрополитена «Русич» моделей 81-740/741

A modern approach to determining the useful life of components and parts of rolling stock allows not only to estimate the pre-failure state of an object, but also to predict its useful life.The objective of the study is to predict the mileage of wheelsets of modern electric trains of the «Rusich» series based on the use of statistical data and assessment of the residual life.The study used real data recorded during maintenance and repair of electric trains.The proposed approach allows getting a vivid presentation of the equipment wear rate, since it is based on the use of the measured parameters of the object. The analysis of these values makes it possible to determine the processes occurring in the product. When using large samples, it becomes possible to approximate the obtained numerical values and make a forecast of the technical condition with greater reliability.The task of predicting the residual life is quite complicated and must be solved separately for each type of equipment. That is why the generally accepted world practices are associated with preventive maintenance and repair system, while modern automated digital systems for technical diagnostics (including on-board and built-in ones) make it possible to partially switch to technical maintenance and repair considering the actual technical condition of the rolling stock.Современный подход к определению ресурса узлов и деталей подвижного состава позволяет не только оценивать предотказное состояние объекта, но и прогнозировать его ресурс.Целью исследования является прогнозирование величины пробега колёсных пар современных электропоездов модели «Русич» на основе использования статистических данных и определения остаточного ресурса.При проведении исследования использованы реальные данные, фиксируемые при обслуживании и ремонте электропоездов.Предложенный подход позволяет получить наглядное представление о скорости износа оборудования, так как он основан на использовании измеренных параметров объекта.Проведение анализа указанных величин даёт возможность определить процессы, протекающие в изделии. При использовании больших выборок появляется возможность провести аппроксимацию полученных числовых значений и произвести прогноз технического состояния с бóльшей достоверностью.Задача прогнозирования остаточного ресурса является достаточно сложной и должна решаться отдельно для каждого вида оборудования. Именно поэтому общепринятой мировой практикой является планово-предупредительная система технического обслуживания и ремонта. Но современные автоматизированные цифровые системы технического диагностирования (включая бортовые и встроенные) позволяют частично перейти на техническое обслуживание и ремонт с учётом фактического технического состояния подвижного состава

Social behavior modeling based on Incremental Discrete Hidden Markov Models

12 pagesInternational audienceModeling multimodal face-to-face interaction is a crucial step in the process of building social robots or users-aware Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA). In this context, we present a novel approach for human behavior analysis and generation based on what we called "Incremental Discrete Hidden Markov Model" (IDHMM). Joint multimodal activities of interlocutors are first modeled by a set of DHMMs that are specific to supposed joint cognitive states of the interlocutors. Respecting a task-specific syntax, the IDHMM is then built from these DHMMs and split into i) a recognition model that will determine the most likely sequence of cognitive states given the multimodal activity of the in- terlocutor, and ii) a generative model that will compute the most likely activity of the speaker given this estimated sequence of cognitive states. Short-Term Viterbi (STV) decoding is used to incrementally recognize and generate behav- ior. The proposed model is applied to parallel speech and gaze data of interact- ing dyads

Jahn-Teller effects and surface interactions in multiply-charged fullerene anions and the effect on scanning tunneling microscopy images

We investigate the combined effects of Jahn-Teller (JT) coupling and interactions with a surface substrate on fullerene anions C$_{60}^{2-}$ to C$_{60}^{4-}$. JT coupling alone causes the C$_{60}$ ions to instantaneously distort from the icosahedral symmetry of the neutral molecule to a lower symmetry, with the molecule moving dynamically between a set of equivalent distortions. When adsorbed on a surface, the number of equivalent minimum-energy distortions is reduced. The implications of this on observed scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images will be discussed, and comparisons made with existing experimental data. We show that a consistent interpretation of the images from all of the charge states of C$_{60}$ can only be obtained using a JT model in which the symmetry is further reduced by surface interactions. The comparison with experimental data also allows us to determine relationships between the quadratic Jahn-Teller coupling and surface interaction parameters

Learning Two-input Linear and Nonlinear Analog Functions with a Simple Chemical System

The current biochemical information processing systems behave in a predetermined manner because all features are defined during the design phase. To make such unconventional computing systems reusable and programmable for biomedical applications, adaptation, learning, and self-modification baaed on external stimuli would be highly desirable. However, so far, it haa been too challenging to implement these in real or simulated chemistries. In this paper we extend the chemical perceptron, a model previously proposed by the authors, to function as an analog instead of a binary system. The new analog asymmetric signal perceptron learns through feedback and supports MichaelisMenten kinetics. The results show that our perceptron is able to learn linear and nonlinear (quadratic) functions of two inputs. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first simulated chemical system capable of doing so. The small number of species and reactions allows for a mapping to an actual wet implementation using DNA-strand displacement or deoxyribozymes. Our results are an important step toward actual biochemical systems that can learn and adapt